Monday, January 20, 2014

There is no disputing about tastes

Hugs and friends and gentle music... One could very easily believe that writing about tango is idyllic project. Its not! It can be very stressful and very dangerous activity, and tango bloggers and activists should be honored and protected for what they do. How come? Well, as I told you in my post about "Tango and chaos", people react and comment publicly and more often behind the back, and you should have very very big balls to tell people the truth in their face. Sometimes this, having big balls, could be named being stupid, but, some of us have this superpower called stupidity, like it or not.

I am speaking now about how dangerous is to comment about what people prefer in tango, about tastes and about styles. I tough that those Latin people when they said "De gustibus non est disputandum" (In matters of taste, there can be no disputes) were very wrong. For what should we dispute if not for the tastes? Hm, maybe I was wrong. Let me in the following sentences explain why.

See, the taste could be defined as a pattern on which we chose things in life, normaly when we have more options to chose from. Being so, the taste defines the core of what our personality is. Denying or criticizing the taste is perceived as attack on ones personality and it is in most cases very bitterly defended. Being criticizer and attacking someone's taste can get you in a lots of troubles.

Maybe this is the reason why people have the impression that there is a lot of ego involved in the tango world; maybe its because in tango most of the things are connected with subjectivity and the taste; with choices and personality.

But, fortunately there are some objective criteria by which we can judge and we can use them to make difference. The taste is pattern of choosing in the case when we have options - but there are situations where we don't have options to chose from. This means, we must do it, because otherwise it will not work.

Let me not speak abstract - let me use example - lets say this: man in tango must not close his eyes, not because I don't like it, not because it is my taste, but for very practical reason: because if he does that, he will bump in to the wall or with the other dancers on the flor.

It is that simple. But it will get more complicated... and more dangerous also.